Posted by Clayton Burton on June 17, 1998 at 16:57:21:
I am General Counsel for a corporation and not an intellectual property expert. Any specialist advice would be appreciated. We frequently market a service to the franchisees of large national companies. We use the trademark of the "target" company on sales literature. For example, the caption on a brochure might read "A special package for [logo trademark] Dealers". At the bottom of the brochure, in very readable type, we have a disclaimer: "The [company name] logo is a trademark of [company name]. Applied Media Technologies Corporation is not affiliated with [company name]. My understanding of trademark law is that infringement only exists if the use of a trademark is likely to confuse, deceive, etc. With the disclaimer, I believe we prevent potential confusion as to our (non-) relationship with the trademark owner. Are we pretty safe?